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Sri Lanka's economy grew by 6 percent in real terms in the second quarter of 2005 compared with 5.4 percent during the corresponding quarter of 2004, the Central Bank of Sri Lanka said on Friday.

The growth in the first quarter of 2005, hit by the Asian tsunami has now been revised to 4.4 percent, with CB's director statistics, Dr Anila Dias Bandaranaike explaining that revisions are necessary; rice crops (for instance) were not harvested at the time of computing.

The effect of the tsunami continued into the second quarter. The most affected sub-sectors, fisheries, hotels and restaurants and small industry, were yet recovering, deputy governor, W. Wijewardena said.

The industry and services sectors performed well during the quarter and grew by 7.8 and 7 percent respectively. Most agricultural sector activities recovered strongly, but the overall sector indicated a decline of 2.7 percent; the fisheries sector being the main dampener, deputy director statistics, Susantha Ariyaratne said.

The services sector recorded a 7.7 percent growth and made the highest contribution of 73 percent to the overall growth in the second quarter of 2005.

The transport, storage and communication sector expanded by 15.9 percent compared to 13.5 percent growth in the corresponding quarter of 2004.

This growth was largely driven by the performance in the post and telecommunication sub-sector which has continued to grow at a high pace and expanded further by 35.0 percent in the quarter in review. Mobile phone usage increased by 52.3 percent over the second quarter of 2005, with the subscriber level of mobile users reported to be 2.7 million.

The industry sector grew by 7.8 percent and contributed 35 percent to overall growth, compared with 12 percent recorded in the corresponding quarter of 20004, Wijewardena said.

The electricity and water sector grew by 31.1 percent during the second quarter of 2005, compared with a decline of 21.2 percent in the second quarter of the previous year.

Electricity generation and demand for electricity increased by 10.4 percent and 10.5 percent respectively during the quarter.

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